Re: Query : seeking a (low cost & secure) turnkey plug-and-play appliance to report network outages

[Seth Mattinen <sethm () rollernet us>]

On 11/17/11 4:58 AM, A. Chase Turner wrote:
> I am seeking a $100 turnkey micro hardware appliance to plug into a LAN hub (behind a consumer-level cable modem) 
> whose only purpose in life is to send heartbeat (and simple quality of service metrics) to a pre-configured central 
> aggregation service on the WAN.
>
> Key requirement is the micro hardware appliance will be installed by non-technical elderly end-users -- so, it must 
> be pre-configured and literally plug and play without need for the person installing the appliance to open a web 
> browser to configure.  And it must be a secure, good-reputation stand-alone hardware appliance ... because the 
> heartbeat cannot / must not be a service installed on the end-user's computer where it becomes a support burden 
> (e.g., did the end-user turn off their computer?  Is their antivirus software blocking the outgoing heartbeat? That 
> the end-user needs to enter a username/password/destination to enable the heartbeat, etc)


Mikrotik RouterBoards are low cost and robust. It can be scripted to do
things like call a specific URL every X minutes. Some models have just a
single Ethernet port as well (they're designed to be used as a wireless
AP/CPE with an add-in mini PCI card) for even less confusion about
plugging it in.

~Seth